Evaluation of anticholinergic burden of medications in older adults.

Objectives: To calculate and describe the anticholinergic burden of medications in community-dwelling older adults and to identify patient-specific risk factors.

Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study.

Setting: Cardinal Health Visiting Pharmacist Program, Columbus, OH, between August 2002 and August 2009.

Diffusion characteristics of microfabricated silicon nanopore membranes as immunoisolation membranes for use in cellular therapeutics.

Objective: Immunoisolating membranes protect transplanted xenogeneic tissue by physically isolating them from the host. However, most are commercial filter membranes that do not possess all the features needed for immunoisolation. Silicon nanopore membranes are thin layers of silicon containing tens of thousands of nanometer-sized channels, which allow passive diffusion of small molecules.

Tailoring width of microfabricated nanochannels to solute size can be used to control diffusion kinetics.

Top-down microfabrication techniques were used to create silicon-based membranes consisting of arrays of uniform channels having a width as small as 7 nm. The measurement of diffusion kinetics of solutes across these membranes under sink conditions reveals non-Fickian behavior as the nanopore width approaches the hydrodynamic diameter of the solute. Zero-order diffusion of interferon is observed at channel width of 20 nm, and the same phenomenon occurs with albumin and 13-nm-wide channels, whereas Fickian diffusion kinetics is seen at 26 nm and larger pore sizes.

Nanoporous microsystems for islet cell replacement.

The inadequacy of conventional insulin therapy for the treatment of Type I diabetes has stimulated research on several therapeutic alternatives, including insulin pumps and controlled release systems for insulin. One of the most physiological alternatives to insulin injections is the transplantation of insulin-secreting cells. It is the beta cells of the islets that secrete insulin in response to increasing blood glucose concentrations.